This Farce Matters

is that this guy has real responsibilities that impact real people who will be losing their pensions in part because of his incompetence combined with his infatuation with celebrity as he gladly delegates his real duties to those who paid handsomely (and get repaid handsomely) to do his work for him.

This perversion of democracy hit home here where Democrats always win because they get so much money from vendors who then do their work for them at exorbitant cost to most of us in Union County, as this unfolding story illustrates:

The Runnellls/Center Management lease agreement that has cost county taxpayers over $387,000 to date to negotiate is a windfall for Center Management at the expense of Union County taxpayers, Runnells employees and, apparently, the residents.

Editing down the lease agreement to the basic provisions it becomes clear that choosing Center Management to buy Runnells was a massive mistake since they were not able to get the state certifications needed to run the 44-bed psychiatric unit. On top of that the county negotiated a terrible deal that will greatly subsidize Center Management’s repayment of the $26 million it cost them to buy Runnells and allow them to make substantial profits on the 300-bed nursing home as they slash expenses.

Unless, that is, the county can make $317,000 per year on each psychiatric patient as per this spreadsheet developed from the numbers from the lease agreement.

Center Management is supposed to be trying to get their certification to run the psychiatric unit (per article K of the lease agreement) but why would they want to do that and give up the easy money they bamboozled the county into paying them?

And as far as who the residents of the 300-bed nursing home will rely on for their care:
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$100 bonuses to bring in nurses aides and an ad in the paper (job-builder?). The offer is $11.25 an hour for 5 years and, if you want health benefits, you have to pay about $1,000 per month out of that. Who is answering that ad?

And for those interested in the situation on the ground here is a comment made by Marysue from the last Runnells blog that I would have read to the freeholders were they meeting:

The patients’ families are upset . On each unit there are 3 CNAs for over 50 patients for each unit . The hallways smell horrible . Patients sitting in there own feces all night . Signs are put up on the units saying Center Management is sorry for what’s happening. Some aides would have come back if Center Management didn’t decide to snatch benefits away from some part-timers who did want to come back .

Guzzo was not there all day on the first day . Maybe in the office but not in the units. The aides who did stay are tired and over-worked. And now they are thinking about leaving as of today !!! Didn’t Sandra say a couple of months ago that they contracted out some agency to help in case this would happen? Only two aides showed up . No one is coming when the snow gets here . Why risk it for the next 90 days with no insurance? Family members are helping CNAs clean and feed other patients. Center Management knew this was going to happen. But why hire more people when they are saving tons of money by doing things this way?

Tell Guzzo and [Freeholder Angel] Estrada to go up there today and see what they did to the residents of Union County . They don’t deserve this at all .

According to census figures total employment in Union County is at 202,372. According to New Jersey pension records 20,878 of those jobs are in government. Theoretically then 10% of the members of the Union County Democratic Committee should also be working in government to be representative of the general population. It’s not even close. When […]